Even though this is a "OnePlus 7," it isn't really a budget-minded OnePlus 7 Pro — it's more of a refreshed and facelifted OnePlus 6T. One glance at the hardware shows you that it's effectively the same design as the 6T: complete with the teardrop notch in the display, a flat display panel and dual rear cameras. The only notable change here is the back glass, which matches the color and styling of the 7 Pro — you're most likely to see it in Mirror Gray, though there's a red option in China and India.

The specs and features are an interesting portmanteau of the OnePlus 6T and 7 Pro. From the 7 Pro, you're getting the same Snapdragon 855 processor, 6 or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, 128 or 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage, main 48MP camera and stereo speakers. But we're looking at the 6T's 3700mAh battery, 20W fast charging, secondary 5MP wide-angle camera, 16MP front-facing camera, 6.4-inch Optic AMOLED display and older (read: bad) vibration motor. It's unclear if the in-display fingerprint sensor is the 6T's component, but that wouldn't be surprising.

It's tough to argue with the dual-phone strategy to cover a wider range of prices.

The OnePlus 7 starts at £499 in the UK, which is well under the 7 Pro's starting price of £649, with the same 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. A £50 bump gets you 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the same as the 7 Pro at the same price increase, which is great to see. The standard OnePlus 7 is being released in June, which obviously gives the 7 Pro a few weeks of breathing room to take in all the hype before coming in at a lower price.

So you take a OnePlus 6T, slightly refresh the design to make it fit in more with the new phone, update some of the core specs, add in a few features, and leave the rest of the fundamentals the same. For £150 less than the OnePlus 7 Pro's starting price, it's tough to argue with this value proposition. It effectively just takes over from the OnePlus 6T, and is better in many ways for roughly the same price ... so there isn't much to complain about here. When OnePlus upped the price on the 7 Pro, it really did need to have a strategy to address the price point it voided — the standard OnePlus 7 is that.

Andrew Martonik

Andrew is the Executive Editor, U.S. at Android Central. He has been a mobile enthusiast since the Windows Mobile days, and covering all things Android-related with a unique perspective at AC since 2012. For suggestions and updates, you can reach him at andrew.martonik@androidcentral.com or on Twitter at @andrewmartonik.